Diablo Canyon

The private plane that crashed into power lines Sunday near Coalinga, killing both persons on board and closing Interstate 5 for more than 15 hours, also forced a partial shutdown of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, authorities said Monday. Both nuclear reactors at the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plant, about 40 miles southwest of the crash site, were operating at full power when sensors detected a fluctuation in voltage caused by the plane's collision with the power lines.

Increased storage of radioactive wastes at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant has been temporarily prohibited by a federal appeals court. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals raised the possibility of a lengthy shutdown of the plant near San Luis Obispo. The decision came in response to claims by opponents of the plant that the new storage facilities are unsafe.

Residents overwhelmingly voted to start planning for a distant future when the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is no longer operating. The so-called DREAM Initiative asks officials of San Luis Obispo County to bar development along the 14-mile stretch of pristine coast where the plant is located. The property is one of the largest chunks of undeveloped oceanfront land in private hands on the Central Coast.

Re "PG&E undersea air-blast plan assailed," Sept. 29 Regarding Pacific Gas & Electric's possible seismic testing in the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant area: The assertion that marine mammals would not be harmed or killed by up to 250-decibel sound blasts into the ocean over several days is just not credible. And even if people believed that, what about the other local sea life that the mammals depend on for survival? Remember the old bumper-sticker slogan, "Diablo Canyon has a lot of faults"?

Complaining of delays by the California Public Utilities Commission in deciding how much of its investment in the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant it can recover from customers, Pacific Gas & Electric said it will make accounting changes that will slash 1987 net income by about $470 million, or $1.25 per share. The utility said its cash flow is unchanged and its dividend will be maintained.

Workers at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo accidentally flooded the primary cooling system for the plant's Unit Two reactor, releasing minute amounts of contaminated air into the atmosphere in a spill that was contained within the complex. Spokesmen for the plant's owner, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., called the incident "minor" and not an "emergency-level event." Officials said workers were preparing to refuel Unit Two when a valve malfunctioned in the cooling system.